Asymmetrically Yours

If you were here, and you turned around, and it was today, the 14th July instead of when it was actually taken back in June, and it was around 11am, you would probably see about 50 assorted jets flying low overhead as part of the Champs Elysées parade and be impressed by it no end.

As it was, I was in the Conciergerie and could only hear (but boy could we hear) the planes thundering by, or possibly catch a reflection of one or two of them in the windows of the Cour des Dames (Women's Courtyard) where we found ourselves.

This photo, though, has nothing to do with all that. Here we're looking at what could have been a very symmetrical shot indeed, but I decided it wasn't going to be, for reasons I've gone into elsewhere.

There's something delightfully unsettling about disturbed symmetry. The eye seems to be wanting the scene to be a perfect reflection down the middle of the shot as it so clearly could be. This jarring, however, is everything which makes this picture worth taking a second look at. And if that weren't the case that overworked rule of thirds wouldn't even get a look in, right?

And what, you may be wondering, is that wooden monstrocity blocking the view where there used to be one of the most elegant gardens in Paris, pray tell?

Ahh, well that, you see, is the Comédie Française as you've never seen it before, mate! It's currently being refurbished and in a stroke of industriousness has splurged out taking over a handy isle in the Palais Royal gardens. You know, the one where those two shiny and supremely symmetrical ball fountains used to be. Maybe they still are for that matter. If anyone has actually been inside the humungous hut, then do spill the beans, my asymmetric heart is dying to know.